Make the most of your PPC dollars: How to spot click fraud and what to do about it

Click fraud is a huge problem. Annually, it costs businesses anestimated $60 billion, and it’s growing by 50% each year. What can you do to prove your case to Google Ads and receive a refund when you suspect click fraud? Here’s your answer.

Invalid clicks.Click fraud.Click bots.

It sounds scary, doesn’t it? If you’re new to the Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising model, it probably sounds especially terrifying.

The news isn’t all doom and gloom. You can learn how to spot and prove click fraud to get a Google Ads refund.

But first: What is click fraud?

Already know about click fraud? Skip ahead to the next section to dive into how to prove click fraud and win a refund from Google Ads.

According to BigCommerce, click fraud is “when an individual, computer program or generated script exploits online advertisers by repeatedly clicking on a PPC advertisement to generate fraudulent charges.”

For the most part, Google’s systems detect click fraud, so you don’t have to. When/if Google identifies an invalid click, it’s removed before even showing up in your Google Ads report.

That being said, some invalid clicks can and do slip through the cracks.

To spot those clicks, you can use a dedicated anti-click fraud system likeClickCease orPPC Protect. Or you can do it yourself (DIY).

If you’re going the DIY route, here’s how to find and prove click fraud in two steps:

Watch your ad performance for noticeable differences to your data and costs. Are there any spikes in search costs that exceed expectations or anomalies in performance?

Monitor your session recordings to spot repeat visitors from similar ISPs without conversions. Search by your PPC UTM parameters (i.e., “Google” or “CPC”). If you find recordings that you believe are invalid clicks, download that information by clicking on the Export Rows button at the top of the recordings page. All the session information, including UTM parameters, time spent on the site and location, will be downloaded.

However, using the information downloaded from session recordings in the exported spreadsheet and submitting it with your investigation report can help prove your case to the Google Ads team member assigned to your case.

An example of refund success with Lucky Orange: Doggo Digital

Lead generation companyDoggo Digital is a perfect example of how to use session recordings to prove and win a click fraud refund. In this case, it was for a client.

Doggo Digital founder Jake Stowers turned to session recording data of the bot-driven PPC traffic to prove his client’s refund case. He submitted the spreadsheet of the exported rows for 61 instances of suspected click fraud with his investigation report.

After the case was researched and reviewed, Jake was able to share with his client these words from the investigator:

“Thanks for following up with that information! After taking a deeper look into account XXX-XXX-XXXX, I am able to confirm that the clicks have been filtered out. These clicks have been filtered out and have not been charged to your account.”

While there’s no 100% guarantee that a refund will be issued, the more data you can use to prove your case beyond just Google Analytics or Google Ads reports, the greater the chance you’ll see a refund.

One Reply to “Make the most of your PPC dollars: How to spot click fraud and what to do about it”

Click fraud is a growing concern and a big headache for all advertisers in the PPC market. It has a larger repercussions in the long run. Thank you for giving information on how to spot and prove click fraud to get a Google Ads refund. This will surely help advertisers in taking action to reduce the effect of click fraud on their businesses.